Surrendering (Swans Landing)

by Norris, Shana

  Domnall glared at me. “Watch your tongue, young one. You do not want to press me.”

  “You’re not the only one who has lost someone they love,” I said. “My dad died before I even got to know him. Mara lost her mother. Sailor had lost hers until recently. Everyone here has lost someone we care about, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to do what you’re doing. Taking control of our people won’t bring your wife back.”

  Domnall laughed. “Do you think I care about your people? Oh, yes, I told your sister I could take care of them and let them be true finfolk. But those were pretty words for a stupid girl to get her to tell me what I needed to know.”

  Sailor fought to break free of my grip, but I held tighter.

  “No, young one,” Domnall said, pacing back and forth across the shoreline. “What I really needed your island for was not the people, but what your people created here. When your people left Hether Blether, they did not realize that continuing the song in another place would create the same protection that hides the vanishing isles. Every time your people go to the water during the new moon, you have added another layer to the mists around your island. And with that, you have opened the door to the city under the sea. We cannot enter Finfolkaheem through Hether Blether any longer, but I can do so here with your island. All I need is peace enough to find the door, and the key you stole from me.”

  He looked at us. “Of course, now that you know where it is, I do not need to waste my time searching. You can tell me yourself.”

  I shook my head. “We won’t tell you. You can kill us, but we won’t talk.”

  Domnall’s eyes flashed. “That can be arranged.” He walked along the sand a few steps, then turned around to face us, his hands clasped behind his back. “Maybe we got off to the wrong start here. Maybe this violence and manipulation is unnecessary. We can be civil, can we not?”

  At my side, Mara let out a snorting laugh. “Maybe some of us can.”

  “We both have things we want,” Domnall said. “We could possibly reach an agreement that will benefit us both. You take me to the door to Finfolkaheem, and I will help you.”

  “What could we possibly want from you?” Sailor asked.

  His gaze settled on her, staring hard. “Your mother is still ill, I presume? And I have found others that have suffered the same illness. I know what it is, and I know how you can heal her, heal all of them.”

  Sailor sucked in a deep breath. I could see the battle raging inside her. The thing she wanted most was to heal her mother and Miss Gale. I knew how she felt; I had wanted it for my own mother too, for as long I could remember. If Domnall was telling the truth, maybe that would happen.

  He stepped toward us, his hand up in offering. “All you have to do is give me the key and take me to the door, and I will tell you everything you need to know.”

  “We can’t trust him,” Mara whispered, gripping Sailor’s and my hands as we stepped back. “He’s lying.”

  “I am a merciful person,” Domnall said. “I only want what is best for all of us.”

  “No,” Sailor said, her teeth clenched tight as she glared across the sand at him. “We won’t help you.”

  I could see how much of an effort it was for her to turn down his offer. It stung me too, but we couldn’t take any chances. We couldn’t trust him.

  “Very well.” Domnall waved a hand at us. “Get them.”

  Artair and the other guards started across the sand toward us. I backed up, pushing Mara and Sailor behind me. My feet splashed in the surf as water lapped at the shore.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I said, my gaze locked on Artair’s face. I had seen his merciful side already. I needed to reach it again and convince him that Domnall was wrong.

  But he didn’t speak or acknowledge me. He continued forward, leading the other guards toward us.

  My leg hit something hard and I almost toppled over. A slender boat sat on the sand, the end of it bobbing as the water rushed around it. The boat Domnall had arrived in. I scanned the bottom of the boat for weapons we could use, searching for an oar, but the boat was empty.

  “Think of your daughter,” I told Artair. “Would she want you to do this?”

  “Aye, Artair,” Domnall called behind him. “Think of your daughter. Precious little Iseabail. Think how you can help her, how finding the door will help her.”

  “What do we do?” Sailor asked, her hand gripping mine tight.

  Mara bent down to grab a bottle partially buried in the sand and hurled it at the guards. Artair ducked, the bottle sailing harmlessly past him.

  “Josh,” Mara said, her voice cracking. “Ideas?”

  “Only one,” I muttered. It was an idea that my conscience fought against. I didn’t even know if I could do it, but I had no other choice.

  I began to sing, focusing my gaze on the crowd of humans and mixed human-finfolk behind Domnall. Mara and Sailor followed my lead, humming as loud as we could to fight Domnall’s song.

  The crowd, which had been standing behind Domnall, turned their faces toward us. They didn’t look at us, their gazes were still unfocused and they saw only things they could see. But they followed the sound of our voices, moving toward us.

  Could we make them attack Domnall? I didn’t know exactly how to use the song, and my attempt at it now had only been a guess. Something twisted in my gut when I caught sight of my mother’s vacant face in the crowd.

  I couldn’t make these people attack Domnall, even if I could figure out how. It was too dangerous to them. The only thing I could do was get them away from him. Maybe I could save them even if I couldn’t save the three of us.

  But Domnall fought back. He narrowed his eyes, his muscles tensed as he sang louder. The shuffling crowd stopped, their bodies trembling as they tried to decide who to follow. Mr. Moody fell to his knees in the sand, letting out a guttural growl. Others looked to be in pain, their minds torn between the two songs.

  “Stop,” I told Mara and Sailor. “We can’t do this to them.”

  The finfolk guard closed in on us, Artair’s expression blank and detached as he pointed the steak knife he still carried at my throat. I swallowed, gripping Mara and Sailor’s hands tight. What had the finfolk council expected us to do on our own? Even changed, in this new fully finfolk form, we were no match for finfolk who knew how to use the song to their advantage.

  It would end here. We had given up a part of ourselves for nothing.

  A sudden roar filled the air, breaking my focus on Artair. My head whipped toward the dunes, where a crowd surged over the sand, fists raised, bats waving back and forth. I recognized Kyle McCutcheon from school and his friends, and Jackie and the other girls Elizabeth hung out with, and several other students from Swans Landing School, along with their parents and a few teachers. They all wore earmuffs and headphones, an obvious attempt to keep themselves from hearing the song.

  Dylan and Elizabeth were at the front of the pack, racing across the beach toward us.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Domnall’s eyes widened when he saw the crowd racing across the beach. He opened his mouth and the first few notes of the song filled the air over the sound of the crashing waves.

  The earmuffs and headphones didn’t work very well at blocking out all sounds. Elizabeth faltered, stumbling a bit in her run across the sand. Then Dylan stopped running, his furious expression melting into nothingness.

  “We have to keep Domnall from singing,” I told Mara and Sailor. I lunged forward, pushing past Artair, who was still watching the crowd of humans. I fought my way through the finfolk guards and splashed back down the beach to where Domnall stood with the rest of the finfolk and humans he had already taken. His back was to me, his focus on the crowd near the dunes.

  I crashed into Domnall, slamming my shoulder into his back. We tumbled to the ground, rolling across the sand. Domnall’s song died as he struggled to push me off of him. He rolled me over, slamming my back into the wet sand and knocking the air o
ut of me for a moment. My head spun as a wave rolled in, lapping at my side and soaking my sleeve.

  “Get off of him!” Mara shoved Domnall, pushing him into the ankle deep water. She reached out a hand to help me back to my feet. My head still spun a little from the impact of hitting the hard wet earth and also the effects of the salt water that I now stood in. I felt it calling to me, wanting me to swim, the change already making me shudder deep inside.

  “You have been an exceptionally bothersome little nuisance since the moment I met you,” Domnall said, his furious glare directed at me. “I should have taken care of you before you had a chance to leave Hether Blether.”

  I backed away, pulling Mara with me. Domnall splashed through the water as he followed. The scar across his face stood out white against his red skin. He breathed heavily, his nostrils flared.

  “What are you going to do?” Mara asked. “Kill us in front of all these people?”

  “You will be only one of many casualties today,” Domnall said, “unless you step aside and stay out of my way.”

  “You can’t do anything to us,” I told him. “You can’t kill finfolk, you said so yourself.”

  “The laws be damned!” Domnall roared. “I am king and I answer to no one!”

  My body trembled as the water soaked my jeans and lapped against my legs. The urge to dive in was almost too hard to resist. Mara shuddered at my side, her face pale and her teeth gritted together as she too fought against the change. We couldn’t change now and leave everyone else behind. We had to stay, to find a way to fight back against Domnall.

  Domnall’s glare deepened as he drew closer. He was focused on us, as if he didn’t even notice the cold water that crashed against his knees. His body was rigid, his teeth bared in a snarl. Another shudder rocked my body as I fought against the change that wanted to take over—

  My eyes widened. Domnall didn’t notice the water. At my side, Mara panted, her body shaking almost violently against the change. But Domnall stood tall and still. He didn’t shudder like Mara and I did. He didn’t look like he felt any pain as he fought to hold the change back.

  Think, Josh, a voice in my head said. You have all the pieces to the answer.

  Domnall’s boat still bobbed along the shore farther down the beach, where the humans fought with the guards. He had always ridden in a boat whenever he crossed the water in Hether Blether.

  He had come ashore in Swans Landing in a boat also.

  My gaze focused on the scar etched across his face. A scar that could have been easily healed and erased for any finfolk by using the song.

  It all clicked in my head as if someone had suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and whispered the answer in my ear.

  “You can’t change,” I said out loud.

  Domnall froze, his eyes widening. “What did you say?” he demanded, his teeth clenched.

  “You can’t change form,” I repeated, my voice growing louder, confident that I knew the secret Domnall had been hiding. “You’re not fully finfolk. Your family mixed with the humans that were brought to Hether Blether, didn’t they?”

  Domnall’s face turned red and he lunged toward us, letting out a guttural scream.

  Just before he reached us, another body crashed into him, pushing Domnall deeper into the water. The two figures emerged, splashing and struggling in the knee deep water. Lake’s long hair whipped at his face as he fought against Domnall.

  “Go!” he shouted at us before swinging at Domnall again.

  Mara grabbed my hand and we crashed through the water toward the shore, where the rest of the humans and finfolk that had been under Domnall’s spell were regaining consciousness.

  * * *

  “What the hell is going on?” Mr. Connors grabbed my arm as Mara and I crashed onto the beach. “What have you done, boy?”

  “We’ve saved your life,” Mara snapped. She shoved Mr. Connors back, forcing him to let go of me. “Now are you going to help us save this island or not?”

  Mr. Connors looked back and forth between us, his lips curled in disgust. A scream echoed across the beach and his head whipped in that direction. “Lizzie!” he called, before taking off down the beach.

  Lake and Domnall still struggled out in the water. Lake couldn’t fight him on his own. If Domnall got the chance to sing again, he’d easily overpower Lake.

  “Stay here,” I told Mara.

  She shook her head. “No way.”

  I gritted my teeth, then dashed into the surf, sending up splashes of water around me as I made my way back to Lake and Domnall. The finfolk king had gotten the upper hand and as I drew closer, I could hear him singing. Lake sat in the surf, the water crashing around his head. He had the glazed expression again and he lifted one hand to touch at something only he could see.

  I leaped at Domnall, spinning him around. His song ended abruptly as we fell into the water again.

  Domnall raised up on his knees, his hands pushing me underwater. I looked up at him through the rippling surface, his hair wet strings that dripped down his shoulders and his face contorted into a snarl. He seemed to remember that I wasn’t like him. The water couldn’t drown me.

  He snatched me up by the collar, his hands moving to my neck.

  “The laws of the finfolk do not protect you here,” he told me. His thumbs dug into my windpipe, crushing against the thin bones in my neck. I scratched at his hands, but his grip was strong. “I can kill you if I choose.”

  Lake crashed into Domnall again and all three of us tumbled into the water. Domnall came up, sputtering and coughing, shaking the water from his eyes.

  “Get out of here,” Lake told me.

  But the change was taking over him. His body shuddered and he cried out, bending over at the waist as his legs began to morph into a tail, ripping through the fabric of his jeans. I could feel my own change aching deep inside, and I tried to force it back, hoping for just a few more minutes.

  Lake disappeared under the water, leaving me alone with Domnall.

  “Enough of these games,” Domnall said. He reached into a pocket of his robe and pulled out a long metal object. Mr. Connors’s handgun.

  I swallowed, my eyes locked on the gun.

  “Pathetic human weaponry,” Domnall said, wrinkling his nose at the wet gun. “Crude, but effective enough, I suppose. I am certain I can figure out how it works.”

  He aimed the barrel at my chest, a smile curling the corners of his lips.

  “No!”

  A crack echoed across the water just as the dark shape of a figure leaped in front of me, pushing me back. I stumbled and fell into the surf, immersed completely in the water that bubbled in my ears and crashed over my head. I couldn’t hold it back now. My body rocked with tendrils of pain as the change took over. I scrambled to unbutton my soaked jeans and tried to pull them off before my legs fused together. I tumbled backward, twisting in the relentless crashing waves that battered me back and forth.

  When it was done and the pain subsided, I pushed myself toward the surface, blinking away the salt in my eyes, scanning the water around me.

  Domnall stood in the surf, his wet robe twisted around his knees, the gun still gripped in one hand. He had a fiendish look, like a dog who’d had a taste of blood. He aimed the gun at me again, his teeth bared.

  But before he could pull the trigger, a figure rose from the water behind him, golden scales flashing in the faint sunlight. Lake grabbed Domnall around the waist and pulled him into the water. Domnall’s arms flailed, the gun soaring from his hand and landing in the crashing waves. Domnall and Lake disappeared below the surface.

  “Josh!”

  Mara stood only a few feet away, struggling with something in the water as she made her way back to the shore. I dove and swam toward her, resurfacing just behind her.

  When I saw what Mara was pulling to shore, iciness spread through my body.

  My mother lay limp in the water, her eyes fluttering and her face way too pale. A dark stain blossomed on
the front of her shirt, turning the water around her red.

  Mara and I pulled her to shore, getting her away from the rolling waves. The beach was quiet as people gathered around us, solemn faces looking down at my mom where she lay on the sand.

  “Mom?” I asked, panting heavily. “Mom, talk to me. Open your eyes.”

  Her eyes fluttered a little and she let out a soft moan.

  I looked up at the watching crowd. “We need a doctor!” I shouted at them. “Someone help!” But there was no hospital in Swans Landing. The closest one was a three hour ferry ride away.

  Dr. Hansen knelt next to me, placing her fingertips on Mom’s throat. Her mouth set in a grim line as she looked at me, the unspoken words evident in her eyes.

  I spotted Artair in the group and pointed at him. “This is your fault. Do something!”

  He came toward me, kneeling at my side. “What would you have me do?”

  Tears burned my eyes and I blinked them back. “Sing. Heal her!”

  Artair shook his head. “It does not work for humans.”

  “You have to try,” I grunted at him.

  “I am sorry,” Artair said, lowering his head.

  I choked on the lump in my throat. I bent over my mom, smoothing her hair back from her face. If he wouldn’t try, I would. I began to hum the first notes of the song, stumbling over the sounds as I fought back sobs.

  Mom opened her eyes, her gaze flitting back and forth until she focused on my face for just a moment. She smiled and reached up a hand toward me. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

  Her eyes closed slowly, fluttering for a moment, and then her hand fell back in the sand, unmoving.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Mara’s arms wrapped around me and I buried my face in her shoulder. She hugged me close, not saying anything, just sitting there with me. I couldn’t look at my mom. She almost looked like she was sleeping, but I knew she would never wake up.

  The numbness that had taken hold of me was now replaced by fury that sparked inside my gut. I wanted someone to blame, someone to lash out at.